Westcott, Bucks

The garden at Westcott finally got off the mark for 2025 on 5th January.  This has been a very quiet period thanks to the lengthy cold snap and the lights remained off for the majority of it.  An attempt on the 1st (more out of tradition than expecting anything to arrive!) produced nothing at all, the next attempt on the 5th brought in two moths, while a slight improvement in the weather from the 13th onwards did attract a bit more activity on that and the following two nights with the following new for the year list:

     (5th)  Agonopterix heracliana, Winter Moth

     (13th)  Pale Brindled Beauty

     (14th)  Ypsolopha ustella, Mottled Umber

Hopefully Early Moth, whose flight period is limited mainly to January and February, will put in an appearance very soon now.  It is a regular here and its first record is usually during the first two weeks of the new year, so I'm surprised not to have seen one already.  

Ypsolopha ustella, Westcott 14th January

At the moment Peter Hall is kindly working his way through a number of dissections for me from 2024 and there have been a couple of 'newsworthy' items already.  Perhaps the most significant is Phyllocnistis asiatica which was discovered as new to the UK in 2018 (more info can be found on the Atlas page for this species).  It is identical in appearance to Phyllonorycter saligna and, like Spiny Hook-tip, is another moth which seems to have been "hiding in plain sight".  To date it appears that only females of asiatica and saligna can safely be determined to species via dissection and four examples of asiatica have been confirmed from Westcott so far (23rd June, 29th July, 30th July x 2) with more still to be checked.  That saligna hasn't (yet) been found is perhaps equally as interesting!  

Phyllocnistis asiatica, Westcott 23rd June 2024

The other notable discovery was confirmation that I had an example of Saltern Ear to light at Westcott on 24th July 2024.  I thought at the time that it might be that species and the picture can be seen here on the blog.  This was a first record for Bucks.

Dave Wilton Westcott, Bucks